Which doesn’t mean that Cool Things don’t happen in the Philippines.
I’m thrilled by the recent (_really_ recent!) achievements of our ACM
kids (some of them are older than I am, but I taught them, so I can
get away with it). See the note below for more details. Also, am very
proud of Celsus Kintanar for TopCoder achievement, noted
previously on my bog.

When Faye’s story came up, my mom and I talked about the controversy
over the truth of the story. My mom said that even if the story was
false, she _knew_ things like this happened. She knew that people who
participate in contests sometimes don’t get support from the
government or from organizations, that they’re sometimes just used for
publicity. She knew because we went through some of those things
during the international competitions I joined in high school.

But my story isn’t sad. My story is a story of the boundless support I
received from people around me—my parents, my friends, my teachers. I
owe so much to people like Ma’am Sonia Javier and Dr. Pablo Manalastas
(Hi, Doc Mana!) not only for helping us prepare for the contests but
for helping us grow as people. Now, with the new generation of what we
jokingly refer to as computer science varsity, I feel confident that
we’ll get even better.

To all those who participated in the contest, may the experience be
as wonderful for you as it was for me.